Elon Musk Makes Promise to Twitter Users After Takeover

Elon Musk has agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion. It remains to be seen what the Tesla and SpaceX owner is going to do with the platform, but he's already promised that free speech is going to be a central principle for the platform going forward. In the past, Musk has criticized Twitter and how it has handled moderation. As a result, many are anticipating big changes to the platform under Musk's rule, but for now, it remains to be seen what exactly will and won't be changed. Musk has yet to reveal what his plans are, but he has pledged several things already. 

For example, just yesterday Musk said he hopes that even his worst critics remain on the platform, as censoring those that disagree with him stifles free speech. This pledge alone has some users worried who favor heavy moderation rather than a completely open platform. To this end, Musk recently tweeted "the extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all."

"By 'free speech,' I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law," said Musk. "If people want less free speech, they will ask the government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people."

In recent years, Twitter has banned many prominent accounts, but none more prominent than Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. Whether these accounts will be reinstated remains to be seen, but the expectation going forward is there will be fewer bannings than there have been. 

Musk has also teased a crackdown on spam bots and offering verification to every real human on the platform. The latter would be another big change to the platform, which has been very clannish when it comes to verification. 

As always, we will keep you updated as Elon Musk slowly reveals his plans for the platform. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts and hot-takes in the comments section or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. What do you think of Elon Musk buying Twitter and his recent tweets about free speech?

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